In many cemeteries, sidewalks and substantially flat, low profile memorial markers are provided throughout the grounds. In some instances, the memorial markers, which may generally be rectangular in shape, are position or located so that one edge of the marker is adjacent the edge of a sidewalk. As with most any sidewalk or object set in the ground and having grass growing therearound, the grass tends to grow over the peripheral edges of the object, thereby presenting an unsightly or unkept appearance. This has presented a particularly serious and ongoing problem in the maintenance of cemeteries and has required laborious time consuming operations for edging or trimming of grass growing over the edges of memorial markers and sidewalks.
In the past, the edging or trimming of grass around the sidewalks and memorial markers in cemeteries has been accomplished manually using hand carried commercial edging devices. During peak growth periods, for example in the summer, by the time that the crew using the hand carried edgers finished the trimming around the memorial markers and the sidewalks, it was time to start the job over again. For example, in a typical cemetery having five miles of sidewalk and ten thousand markers, it has typically taken a crew of four persons with commercial edgers approximately two weeks to edge the sidewalks and markers at the cemetery. Thus, a substantial full time crew has been required to maintain the grounds of the cemetery.
Riding grass trimmers adapted to trim grass around memorial markers in cemeteries are known. For example, one such known grass trimmer is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,190 to Critts, in which a rotary drum is mounted on a vehicle and has a plurality of flexible whips extending outwardly from the drum along its entire length. When the drum is rotated at high speeds, the flexible whips are spun radially outward in a series of vertical planes to whip against the grass surrounding the memorial markers and sever the tops of the grass blades from their lower stalks. In other words, a majority or substantial number of the flexible whips mounted on the drum actually engage the upper surface of the marker as the riding vehicle traverses past the memorial markers. It will thus be appreciated that the majority of the flexible whips do not follow the contour of the memorial markers as they pass over the object. At the same time, with this prior art arrangement a substantial number of whips are required to trim the grass around the edges of the marker which are perpendicular or transverse to the direction of movement of the vehicle. Still further, since the whips move generally in the same direction as the grass which is growing over the edges of the markers, such grass stalks may not be trimmed to provide a neat well-manicured appearance. Accordingly, such an arrangement does not serve as an efficient and still effective means for accomplishing the desired trimming around the edges of the memorial marker and/or sidewalks.
These and other disadvantages of the prior art are overcome with the edging device in accordance with the present invention.